Marcuse Says He Was Never Invited to Conference; Javits, Ribicoff Unable to Attend

February 24, 1971

NEW YORK (Feb. 23)

SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC AGENCY

Prof. Herbert Marcuse, the leading theoretician of the New Left, denied today that he had been invited to attend the world conference on Soviet Jewry in Brussels. Reports from the Belgian capital had said he would be there, but he dismissed them as inaccurate. Speaking to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency by telephone from San Diego, where he is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Marcuse asserted: “Nobody ever got in touch with me, and I never considered it.” He added: “I cannot go to Europe now.” Marcuse declined to comment on the conference until he saw “how it turns out.” But he stressed that he has spoken out against Soviet treatment of Jews. The JTA in Washington received a copy of a telegram sent to Brussels by Senators Jacob K. Javits and Abraham A. Ribicoff which expressed “deep regret” that “previous commitments here” prevented their attending the conference. The New York Republican and the Connecticut Democrat had been scheduled to participate in the conference. In their joint telegram to Brussels, they pledged “our every effort to help to relieve the plight of 3 million Soviet Jews.” The Brussels meeting, they said, was “vital to the future of Soviet Jewry.” Addressing the participants, the legislators said they “await, with other Americans of all faiths, the results of your deliberations, and join you in the hope that the conference will achieve its objectives.”